Good resolution and detail, with very nice color.

The extreme tonal range of this image makes it a tough shot for many digicams, which is precisely why I set it up this way, and why I shoot it with no fill flash or reflector to open the shadows. The object is to hold both highlight and shadow detail without producing a "flat" picture with muddy colors, and the FinePix 2650 performed pretty well.

The shot at right was taken with a +0.7 EV exposure compensation adjustment, which brightened the midtones, though at the expense of some highlight detail. (At +0.3 EV, the highlights have stronger detail, but the overall shot is slightly dim.) I chose the Daylight white balance setting for this shot, which is just a hint warm. Still, overall color balance looks very good. Skin tones are about right, and the telltale blue flowers in the bouquet also look pretty good, though just a hint dark. (This is a very difficult blue for many digicams to get right, so the FinePix 2650 performs well here.) Overall saturation is good, although the red flowers in the bouquet are just a little bright.

Resolution is about what I'd expect from a two-megapixel camera, with good detail throughout the frame, even in the shadows. Details are reasonably sharp, though image noise the shadows is moderate.

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.0 EV, see files F265OUTDP0.HTM through F265OUTDP3.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Closer Portrait:

Good resolution and detail, good color.

Overall results are similar to the wider shot above, and the FinePix 2650's 3x zoom lens helps prevent distortion of Marti's features. Detail is stronger in this closeup shot, with better definition in Marti's face and hair. The shot at right was taken with a +0.3 EV exposure compensation adjustment, which is a little bright in the highlights, but gives good midtone values. Shadow detail is again reasonably strong, with moderate noise.

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.0 EV, see files F265FACDP0.HTM through F265FACDP3.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Indoor Portrait, Flash:

Normal Flash

Slow-Sync Flash

Slightly low intensity, but good coverage and reasonably good color.

The FinePix 2650's built-in flash is just a little dim here, but still does a good job illuminating the subject in its Normal mode. (The 2650's exposure compensation adjustment doesn't affect flash exposure.) The background incandescent lighting results in a slight orange cast on the back wall, which spills onto Marti's features a little, but overall color is really pretty good. The camera's Slow-Sync mode combines the flash with a slower shutter speed, which allows more ambient light into the image. The orange cast increases, but so does overall brightness, and the color of the flash matches the room lighting surprisingly well.

Indoor Portrait, No Flash:

Auto White Balance

Incandescent White Balance

Visible color casts with both white balance settings, but good overall exposure.

This shot is always a very tough test of a camera's white balance capability, given the strong, yellowish color cast of the household incandescent bulbs used for the lighting. The FinePix 2650's white balance system struggled a little bit with this subject, producing color casts at both the Auto and Incandescent settings. I chose the Auto setting for the main shot, as I personally preferred the pink cast to the more yellowish look of the Incandescent setting. Marti's skin tone is quite warm, and the blue flowers came out quite dark and purplish. (Probably to be expected, though, considering the light source.)

The shot at right has a +1.0 EV exposure compensation adjustment, which just borders on being too bright. (I thought the +0.7 EV shot just a little too dim.)

House Shot:

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Resolution and detail are good, and color is close to accurate. Exposure is slightly bright, however.

On this shot, the FinePix 2650's Auto white balance setting produced the most accurate color, as the Daylight white balance resulted in a slight yellow cast. Though the Auto setting also produces a slight warm cast, overall color is good. Resolution is moderate, with an average level of detail in the tree limbs and shrubbery for a two megapixel camera. Details are actually quite sharp, with good definition (though partly from high contrast). Only a trace of softness is visible in the corners of the frame.

Far-Field Test

Moderate resolution and detail, and good color, but limited dynamic range.

This image is shot at infinity to test far-field lens performance. NOTE that this image cannot be directly compared to the other "house" shot, which is a poster, shot in the studio. The rendering of detail in the poster will be very different than in this shot, and color values (and even the presence or absence of leaves on the trees!) will vary in this subject as the seasons progress. In general though, you can evaluate detail in the bricks, shingles and window detail, and in the tree branches against the sky. Compression artifacts are most likely to show in the trim along the edge of the roof, in the bricks, or in the relatively "flat" areas in the windows.

This is my ultimate "resolution shot," given the infinite range of detail in a natural scene like this, and the FinePix 2650 does well for its two-megapixel resolution. The tree limbs over the roof and fine foliage in front of the house show good detail, though leaf patterns are slightly soft. Aside from the fine foliage, details are fairly crisp throughout the frame, with only a suggestion of corner softness on the right side of the frame. The camera loses practically all detail in the bright white paint surrounding the bay window, a trouble spot for many digicams. Detail is also weak in the shadow area above the front door, further evidence of the FinePix 2650's limited dynamic range. Overall color looks good despite the slight overexposure. The table below shows a standard resolution and quality series.

Resolution Series:

Wide Angle	"Fine" JPEG	"Normal" JPEG
1,600 x 1,200	F265FARLF	F265FARLN
1,280 x 960		F265FARMN
640 x 480		F265FARSN

Lens Zoom Range

A typical 3x zoom range.

I routinely shoot this series of images to show the field of view for each camera, with the lens at full wide angle, at maximum telephoto (3x, in this case), and at full telephoto with the digital zoom enabled. The FinePix 2650's lens is equivalent to a 38-114mm zoom on a 35mm camera. That corresponds to a moderate wide angle to a pretty good telephoto, with a slight overall bias toward the telephoto end relative to the more common 35-105mm range of many competing cameras. (For some reason, the digital telephoto shot came out terribly blurred, possibly the result of a focus problem. - Digital telephoto always trades off resolution for magnification, but would never produce a result this soft. I don't think this sort of result is typical, but I'd already sent the camera back to Fuji before I noticed this.) Following are the results at each zoom setting.

Musicians Poster

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Great color and a good level of detail throughout the frame.

This shot is often a tough test for digicams, as the abundance of blue in the composition frequently tricks white balance systems into producing a warm color balance. The FinePix 2650's white balance system handles the challenge well, producing nearly accurate color with both the Auto and Daylight settings, although the Daylight option does indeed produce a slightly warm-toned image. Because the Auto setting produced a slight yellow cast, I chose the Daylight white balance as the most accurate. Skin tones look pretty good, and the blue robe is just about right. Only the faintest purple tints are in the deeper shadows of the robe, which is a common problem with this shot. Resolution is moderately high, as the embroidery of the blue robe shows good detail.

Macro Shot

Standard Macro Shot

Macro with Flash

About average macro area, but great detail. Flash doesn't cover well up close.

The FinePix 2650 did a good job in the macro category, capturing an average-sized minimum area of 3.69 x 2.77 inches (94 x 70 millimeters). Resolution is high, with strong, well-defined detail in the dollar bill, coins, and brooch. (Detail seems to be defined more by higher contrast than sharpness.) There's a little softness to be seen in all four corners, but it's not too bad. The wide-angle lens position required by the Macro setting results in noticeable barrel distortion as well. The FinePix 2650's flash had trouble when shooting this close, actually throttling down too much and underexposing the shot. - It's coverage is also rather uneven when shooting this close. Overall, not a bad macro performance, but plan on using external lighting of some sort for the closest shots.

"Davebox" Test Target

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Slightly yellow white balance and high contrast, but good overall exposure and color.

Both the Auto and Daylight white balance settings produced nearly identical images here, with warm, yellow-green color balances. The warm cast hurts the accuracy of the large color blocks, although saturation is pretty good. The large red and blue color blocks are slightly oversaturated, but I'd still rate the color as pretty good. Exposure looks about right, although the contrast is a tad high (as I observed in the outdoor photos) Despite the high contrast, the FinePix 2650 has no trouble distinguishing the subtle tonal variations of the Q60 target. The shadow area of the charcoal briquettes shows limited detail, with moderate noise, further evidence of limited dynamic range.

Low-Light Tests

Limited low-light capabilities, not suitable for even average street lighting at night.

The FinePix 2650's full automatic exposure control and maximum shutter time of 1/2-second severely limits the camera's low-light shooting capabilities. The camera produced clear, bright, usable images only down to four foot-candles (44 lux) which is about two stops brighter than average city street lighting at night. The test target is visible at the two foot-candle (22 lux) light level, but is very dim. Color looks good, though slightly warm, and noise is low. The table below shows the best exposure I was able to obtain for each of a range of illumination levels. Images in this table (like all of our sample photos) are untouched, exactly as they came from the camera.

Flash Range Test

Surprisingly good intensity all the way to 14 feet.

In my testing, the FinePix 2650's flash illuminated the test target all the way out to 14 feet, without any significant decrease in intensity, although the camera did have trouble focusing in the low light this test is shot in. Below is the flash range series, with distances from eight to 14 feet from the target.

8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft	12 ft	13 ft	14 ft
1/ 60 secs F3.5 ISO: 100	1/ 60 secs F3.5 ISO: 100	1/ 60 secs F3.5 ISO: 100	1/ 60 secs F3.5 ISO: 100	1/ 60 secs F3.5 ISO: 100	1/ 60 secs F3.5 ISO: 100	1/ 60 secs F3.5 ISO: 100

ISO-12233 (WG-18) Resolution Test

Good two-megapixel resolution, with 700-850 lines of "strong detail." High barrel distortion, but moderate pincushion.

The FinePix 2650 performed well for its two-megapixel class on our "laboratory" resolution test chart, although it's more prone than most cameras to artifacts in vertically-arranged detail. It started showing artifacts in the test patterns at resolutions as low as 300 lines per picture height vertically, and as low as 600 lines horizontally. I found "strong detail" out to at about 850 lines horizontally, but in the vertical direction, strong aliasing and artifacts led me to rate it at only 700 lines of resolution. "Extinction" of the target patterns didn't occur until about 1,050 lines vertically, and about 980 lines horizontally.

Optical distortion on the FinePix 2650 is rather high at the wide-angle end, where I measured an approximate 1.02 percent barrel distortion. The telephoto end was more moderate, as I found roughly 0.44 percent pincushion distortion. Chromatic aberration is very low, showing only two or three pixels of faint coloration on either side of the target lines. (This distortion is visible as a very slight colored fringe around the objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target.) The only other distortion I noticed throughout testing was some slight corner softness, but it did not extend far into the image area.

Resolution Series, Wide Angle

Wide Angle	"Fine" JPEG	"Normal" JPEG
1,600 x 1,200	F265RESWLF	F265RESWLN
1,280 x 960	F265RESWMF
640 x 480	F265RESWSF

Resolution Test, Telephoto

1,600 x 1,200 (Fine, Tele)

F265RESTLF